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Online petitions start to click and kick Online petitions start to click and kick
(5 months later)
One year ago, Change.org launched in the UK. They were surfing what remains, in terms of numbers, their most striking petition, started by Trayvon Martin's mother in the US, which garnered 2.2 million signatures and ensured at least the motions of justice for a 17-year-old who had previously been written off as just another dead kid. But what does success look like here?One year ago, Change.org launched in the UK. They were surfing what remains, in terms of numbers, their most striking petition, started by Trayvon Martin's mother in the US, which garnered 2.2 million signatures and ensured at least the motions of justice for a 17-year-old who had previously been written off as just another dead kid. But what does success look like here?
Stacy Stafford's son, Aaron, has cerebral palsy and she wanted the council to pay for him to go to a particular school – she'd already taken the council to court, and won, but for an arcane reason had to go through it again last September. "I just thought, I cannot put myself through this again. I was sitting in a pub, with my computer, and I thought, right, I'm going to do a petition. You invite 15 people per day, and I chose people from different areas of my life. I didn't have any clue how quickly it would grow."Stacy Stafford's son, Aaron, has cerebral palsy and she wanted the council to pay for him to go to a particular school – she'd already taken the council to court, and won, but for an arcane reason had to go through it again last September. "I just thought, I cannot put myself through this again. I was sitting in a pub, with my computer, and I thought, right, I'm going to do a petition. You invite 15 people per day, and I chose people from different areas of my life. I didn't have any clue how quickly it would grow."
Her teenage daughter had a friend who was friends with Joan Collins on Facebook ("She said, 'my friend knows this lady, she's called Joanne Collins. She's a singer'. I said, 'do you mean Joan Collins?'"); she retweeted it. The petition went up on a Sunday, they got a phone call from the head of inclusion on Thursday and they had the schooling approved that same day. The council conceded on paying for the travel the following Tuesday. "You don't realise how much power people have now. Anything that happens, it can spread like wildfire. I was really just as shocked as anyone else. I know that legislation is effective but it's very slow, and it's expensive and stressful."Her teenage daughter had a friend who was friends with Joan Collins on Facebook ("She said, 'my friend knows this lady, she's called Joanne Collins. She's a singer'. I said, 'do you mean Joan Collins?'"); she retweeted it. The petition went up on a Sunday, they got a phone call from the head of inclusion on Thursday and they had the schooling approved that same day. The council conceded on paying for the travel the following Tuesday. "You don't realise how much power people have now. Anything that happens, it can spread like wildfire. I was really just as shocked as anyone else. I know that legislation is effective but it's very slow, and it's expensive and stressful."
Brie Rogers Lowery, UK director of Change, is very firm on the importance of this. She doesn't hold with dismissive words like clicktivism. "It enables people to hold politicians and corporations to account much more."Brie Rogers Lowery, UK director of Change, is very firm on the importance of this. She doesn't hold with dismissive words like clicktivism. "It enables people to hold politicians and corporations to account much more."
A brilliant example from the corporate side is Kester Brewin, who started a petition against Friends Life, who were refusing to pay out the life insurance policy of his friend, Nic Hughes, who died of cancer at the age of 44. "I watched him, when he knew he was dying, falling into a depression trying to deal with this blinking company, and that's what inspired me to begin the campaign. A lot of people round the country caught on to that, the way big business treats ordinary people. And now we have the tools to really get together. I literally ran this off my smartphone during my free periods at school."A brilliant example from the corporate side is Kester Brewin, who started a petition against Friends Life, who were refusing to pay out the life insurance policy of his friend, Nic Hughes, who died of cancer at the age of 44. "I watched him, when he knew he was dying, falling into a depression trying to deal with this blinking company, and that's what inspired me to begin the campaign. A lot of people round the country caught on to that, the way big business treats ordinary people. And now we have the tools to really get together. I literally ran this off my smartphone during my free periods at school."
A few salient details: first, it was the decision of the financial ombudsman that forced the company to pay out, rather than the campaign itself. In a way, the petition was an anti-advertising campaign, running alongside the legal process, costing a delicious and unquantifiable amount more than the payout ever could. Second, Brewin tweeted it first to Stephen Fry, whose retweet kickstarted the signatures; and the cussed part of me thinks this is just That's Life with added internet. Twitter turns celebrities into a weapons-grade Esther Rantzen, but the process remains the same: dumb luck sets your cause apart; dumb luck cracks open the business practices of an insurance firm run by a hedge fund that will be back to normal the minute the world has forgotten not to use it.A few salient details: first, it was the decision of the financial ombudsman that forced the company to pay out, rather than the campaign itself. In a way, the petition was an anti-advertising campaign, running alongside the legal process, costing a delicious and unquantifiable amount more than the payout ever could. Second, Brewin tweeted it first to Stephen Fry, whose retweet kickstarted the signatures; and the cussed part of me thinks this is just That's Life with added internet. Twitter turns celebrities into a weapons-grade Esther Rantzen, but the process remains the same: dumb luck sets your cause apart; dumb luck cracks open the business practices of an insurance firm run by a hedge fund that will be back to normal the minute the world has forgotten not to use it.
But Dom Aversano disagrees. "I find it thrilling. I really love these tools, I think they're very democratising, and decentralising." He put out a petition last month, asking Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week, as he'd claimed he could in a debate on the Today programme. "I know on the first day we got 100,000, and I think that did set a record in England. I think probably the two people who were the most surprised by the response were myself and Iain Duncan Smith." The momentum was enormous; it may not end up the most-signed petition ever on the UK site (it has nearly half a million signatures now), but it's easily the fastest growing, and its impact was immediate. "Having the phone going continuously was really odd. My girlfriend ended up having to take all the calls and schedule them."But Dom Aversano disagrees. "I find it thrilling. I really love these tools, I think they're very democratising, and decentralising." He put out a petition last month, asking Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week, as he'd claimed he could in a debate on the Today programme. "I know on the first day we got 100,000, and I think that did set a record in England. I think probably the two people who were the most surprised by the response were myself and Iain Duncan Smith." The momentum was enormous; it may not end up the most-signed petition ever on the UK site (it has nearly half a million signatures now), but it's easily the fastest growing, and its impact was immediate. "Having the phone going continuously was really odd. My girlfriend ended up having to take all the calls and schedule them."
It cannot have escaped anybody's notice, here, that Iain Duncan Smith at no point capitulated. But Aversano counters: "I think it did make a difference. Without any reservation, it ruined their week. It just opened up that debate and channelled a load of people's feelings that weren't being articulated".It cannot have escaped anybody's notice, here, that Iain Duncan Smith at no point capitulated. But Aversano counters: "I think it did make a difference. Without any reservation, it ruined their week. It just opened up that debate and channelled a load of people's feelings that weren't being articulated".
That's the split – with single issues, any public-facing organisation is (surprisingly) easy to pressurise once you have the numbers, but to get them, you have to catch the eye of the emperor (Stephen Fry). In openly political petitions, the impact is subtler, and has to be; they can't start doing what social media tell them. They have to think about the future. What if we all signed a petition asking George Osborne to strip naked and flog himself? And yet, if you can change the atmosphere, embolden people who felt shut out before, damp down political rhetoric whose touchpaper was already lit, maybe that means more than whether or not Iain Duncan Smith lives on £53 for a week.That's the split – with single issues, any public-facing organisation is (surprisingly) easy to pressurise once you have the numbers, but to get them, you have to catch the eye of the emperor (Stephen Fry). In openly political petitions, the impact is subtler, and has to be; they can't start doing what social media tell them. They have to think about the future. What if we all signed a petition asking George Osborne to strip naked and flog himself? And yet, if you can change the atmosphere, embolden people who felt shut out before, damp down political rhetoric whose touchpaper was already lit, maybe that means more than whether or not Iain Duncan Smith lives on £53 for a week.
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